�鶹��Ƶ

Jacob Lockey improved his pipette and professional skills in his summer at Athari Biosciences.

When Lockey, a bioengineering major through the bachelor’s accelerated master’s program at �鶹��Ƶ, accepted his internship at Athari Biosciences, he knew that he would have a different experience than his fellow students at larger companies.  

Athari is a small health equity accelerator lab in Sterling, Virginia, that performs biomedical R&D, lab testing, and educational services. Lockey is interested in nanomedicine, especially researching nanocarriers. 

“A nanocarrier is a nanoparticle that has been engineered to hold something—in some cases, a drug—and deliver it to a target, such as a cancer cell,” he said. “The internship was very useful for stuff I’d be doing in the future.” 

Lockey worked on several different projects, including helping calibrate a robot that automates assays (experiments or tests). He also optimized and built different assays, including one using E. coli bacteria to see how it would react to novel antibacterial drugs. This allowed him to explore options for new drugs that could not only kill E. coli bacteria but also make it less likely to become drug resistant. 

“My favorite part overall was the last day,” he said. “Athari hosted a friends and family presentation day. We got to present our work in what would be a real scientific setting, but it was with the C-suite at Athari and our friends. It was the culmination of everything we did at the company all at once.” 

Lockey said that George �鶹��Ƶ prepared him “a million percent” for the internship through both his technical classes and the soft skills he gained during group work and hands-on projects. “The biggest thing I’ve gotten from school was approaching problem solving and thinking like an engineer. Going from an academic setting to a corporate setting, �鶹��Ƶ did a great job in helping us get there.” 

And when he got there, the experience was top-notch. “Athari was very warm and welcoming,” he said. “Taking on interns is a big lift for a small company, but they put a huge emphasis on training and developing the next generation. I learned tons of new skills that I didn’t think I’d get to learn.”  

Some of these included wet lab experience, assay development, and testing. Not to mention pipette work. “I have shaky hands and they really helped me. By the end, I was pipetting like a pro.”